DotProduct Blog

Last week on the showroom floor at Siemens PLM Connection 2017 in Indianapolis, I found myself exploring some of the best workflows for import of DotProduct data into Siemens PLM applications, such as NX 11. These traditionally solid-based applications are widely used for product lifecycle management and design engineering, but haven't traditionally paired as well with laser scan point cloud data. While I found some simple ascii point cloud import functionality available in NX, it is very limited in terms of the number of points and is not designed for use with high density color scan data. This is also the case for many other solid-based mechanical design applications. This led me to InfiPoints DP and Bentley Pointools.

InfiPoints DP offers the most rapid and direct workflow into NX for DotProduct scan data. Operating on Android with Phi.3D and Dot3D, InfiPoints DP rapidly reads DP scan data and exports IGES or DWG solids in a matter of minutes. The application recognizes all surfaces and cylinders in the DP data and converts them into solid features during this process. All these solids can then be exported into a single IGES file, which imports directly into NX. The best part? By avoiding the point cloud data, these solid features are very lightweight and fast to work with in NX, and no additional conversion is necessary on the PC. Please see below for some images of DP data in Dot3D on Android and IGES data in Siemens NX on Windows 10, converted automatically on Android using InfiPoints DP.

While InfiPoints DP is a great workflow for many applications, it can sometimes still be beneficial to utilize the full color point cloud data as a reference, especially in more complex environments. It is for this reason that Siemens has partnered directly with Bentley Pointools. In Pointools or the free Pointools PODcreator, users can import DotProduct data in PTX, PTS, or XYZ format, and export POD point cloud files. POD data will now import directly into Siemens NX 11 as reference point cloud data. Please click here for more on what is new in NX 11 and see below for a brief video on the workflow.

With a growing list of workflows and partners, we aim to make working with DotProduct data rapid and easy in a wide variety of 3D environments. Programs like InfiPoints DP and Bentley Pointools are also helping to bridge some of the gaps. For more information on InfiPoints DP and to download a free 30-day trial, please click here. for more information on Bentley Pointools and to download the free Pointools PODcreator, please click here.